I don’t think it’s about the goose crap.
I think it’s about the principle.
It’s about the fact some cockamamie assessment process says his property is worth $5 million when everybody knows a FOR SALE sign in the front yard would bring nothing near that.
It’s about the fact he’s tired of having his pocket picked by every municipality where he happens to own some property.
I’m talking about Tom Golisano.
He took a two-year business degree and turned into something north of $3 billion. He busted his ass and built his business and gave thousands of people jobs. And some countless other people millions. He’s the biggest made-good story in upstate New York in this generation, and the most generous philanthropist of his day. When you Google “Golisano Children’s Hospital” it asks “Which one?”
He will give you the shirt off his back.
But he won’t let you steal it.
Which gets us back to the goose crap.
Tom Golisano has a cottage on Canandaigua Lake. He uses it with friends and family a few weekends each year. It has a broad expanse of grass and a whole lot of lake frontage.
And a whole crap load of geese.
At least the last couple of years. Where once there were a dozen, now there are 200. Not all the time, but long enough to paint the place with their excrement. The odd, green, high-fiber Tootsie Rolls that have grown too familiar to too many. They cover and corrupt his lawn. No one wants to sit out. The kids can’t run to the water. The whole place smells.
It’s increasingly a national problem. Protected by laws that stretch back to a far different time, Canada geese are migratory waterfowl – according to the government – and therefore protected, except during brief hunting seasons. Where once they merely migrated at high altitude across much of the continental United States, now they live year ‘round at our malls, golf courses and public parks. They eat grass and lay eggs and crap like nobody’s business.
And when Tom Golisano went to his town government and asked about its goose-management plan, he got a song and dance about the state and the feds and – just like everybody else – he got no relief.
So he’s put their you-know-whats in a vice.
In September when the school portion of his property tax came due – some $90,000 – he held onto the check. It’s all filled out, there’s money in the bank to cover it, but he’s not sending it in.
And here’s his thinking: The geese make goose crap, which all but eliminates his ability to use his property, which reduces its value, which should reduce his taxes.
Through some magical formula disconnected from reality, the town says his property is worth $5 million. He says that, covered in crap, it’s not worth a plugged nickel.
And that’s where things stand.
What does he want? I don’t know. Maybe he wants the geese gone. Maybe he wants his assessment lowered. Maybe he wants the town to treat him like he’s a valued neighbor, instead of rob him like he’s a drunken sailor. Maybe it’s about the simple mutual regard friends ought to have, and a push back against the common attempt to pick his deep pockets.
And he might have a point.
The same month Tom Golisano did not pay his $90,000 school tax, he donated $5 million to start a mental health facility for children. That was a drop in the bucket of the almost $300 million he has given to one cause or another across the country. The man is not cheap. But, again, the fact he will give it to you, does not mean you can steal it.
And maybe our various taxing authorities should rethink the way they see and treat people like Tom Golisano.
Instead of seeing a rich man as a target to attack, how about seeing him as a resource to respect.
For example, in New York, government business development is entirely built around the concept of tax giveaways. If a business moves or expands or buys a new piece of equipment, the local industrial development agency is apt to give it substantial tax breaks. It is argued that such giveaways are worthwhile because they spur the economy and create jobs.
I’m not sure I believe in any of that, but it is the policy of the state of New York.
Except when it comes to people, instead of businesses.
The policy of the state of New York is to tax the living daylights out of people. And the more successful those people, the more vindictive and bloodthirsty the taxation.
Tom Golisano is a good example of that. He was literally chased out of the state by a billionaire tax that might as well had his name on it.
Maybe the state of New York should change its tune.
Maybe the state of New York – and its various municipalities – should realize that wealthy people are prosperity generators for their neighbors. If you knock off the taxes of a business that brings five jobs to town, is there no way to accommodate a property owner whose financial impact is far greater?
Put another way, do you really want to chase away one of the best people ever to live in your region because you want to bleed him to balance your town or school budget? Is it smart to trip over a dollar to pick up a penny? Must you treat this particular man like he is an enemy?
I think that’s what it’s about.
I think Tom Golisano knows how to do math, and look things up on the Internet. I think he knows when he’s getting boned.
And robbery is robbery, whether it’s a gun to your head or a tax bill in the mail.
The town of South Bristol needs to do an honest assessment. It ought not to drag either Golisano or the taxpayers through the courts. Maybe it could open by simply asking Tom Golisano what he believes a fair assessment is. He’s not a cheapskate, and he’s not a liar, and his estimate will probably be dead on.
I suspect the sooner the town can fix this assessment, the sooner that $90,000 check can get to the school district.
Because this isn’t about the crap on his lawn, it’s about the crap on his tax bill.
And all of us have smelled that smell.